A Viking's hidden gold chest, a real ring you can still go see, and a treasure nobody's ever found
62m
Height (~200 ft)
25m
Width (~82 ft)
428
Steps to the top viewpoint
~1,100
Years since the legend began
The Story
Skógafoss sits on the same ancient sea cliff as Seljalandsfoss, 30km to the west — one continuous wall that rivers off the highland plateau have been pouring over for thousands of years. What makes Skógafoss different isn't its size, though it is bigger and more powerful; it's a legend that goes back to Iceland's earliest days of settlement.
According to the story, the first Viking settler in this area, Þrasi Þórólfsson, hid a chest of gold behind the waterfall before he died — sometime around the year 900. For centuries afterward, locals tried to retrieve it. In one version of the tale, a boy from the village actually found the chest and managed to grab hold of a ring on its handle — but the chest vanished before his eyes, and all he was left holding was the ring.
Nobody has ever found the gold. But the ring, they say, is real.
That part of the story has a genuinely tangible payoff: a ring believed to be connected to the legend is on display at the Skógar Museum, right near the waterfall. Whether or not you believe the rest of the tale, you can go look at the one physical object the story left behind.
As You Walk Around
Easy to miss if you're not looking
You cannot walk behind this one — unlike Seljalandsfoss, the spray here is too intense and the pool too deep. Don't confuse the two before you go; it's a common mix-up.
The 428-step staircase to the top is genuinely worth the climb if you have the legs for it — the view down over the falls and out across the coast is considered by many visitors the best part of the stop.
If you have real energy to spare, the trail continues well beyond the top — this is the start of the Fimmvörðuháls hiking route, with more waterfalls further up that almost nobody stops to see.
The cliff is still eroding, measurably, even now. Over roughly 10,000 years, this line of waterfalls has retreated about 25 kilometers inland from where the coast used to sit.
Fun Trivia
Things most visitors don't know
Skógafoss, Seljalandsfoss, and Gljúfrabúi are the same geological event, staged three times. All three drop over the same ancient sea cliff — different waterfalls, same origin story.
The treasure legend predates almost everything else on this trip. At roughly 1,100 years old, it stretches back nearly to Iceland's original settlement — genuinely one of the oldest stories still told about any single spot you'll visit.